iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Someone should remake the classic movie ...

Donald Trump as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, emerging from the reflecting pool in Washington DC.

Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The Rosette Nebula, which is to the left of Orion. This is a total of about 16 hours of imaging over 7 sessions spread over about 2 weeks. The second image uses different processing to enhance the oxygen (the blue). #astronomy

A ring of reddish nebula set against a field of stars.

A ring of nebula, the outer part reddish and the inner part bluish, set against a field of stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

The Pacman Nebula. This is about 20 hours of imaging over 4 nights. It is about 9500 light years away from us and about 25 light years in diameter. #astronomy

Irregular red nebula fills the center of the image, with a black horizontal ragged scar-like area below center of the nebula. The nebula is set against a dense field of stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Northern lights at about 8:20 this evening. Things had just picked up with the reds starting to appear above the green that had just become more wavy and active.

Northern lights above a few houses and trees. A band of green is just above the horizon, with some waviness and vertical pillars. There is some fainter red above the green.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

A few photos from the amazing northern lights tonight. #aurora

Bright red aurora rising diagonally above some trees and houses in the distance.

Bright red aurora above trees and houses.

Red aurora seems to explode from the center of the image, looking straight up into the sky.

The constellation Orion through bright red aurora that fills the field of view.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Panorama of tonight's northern lights. Handheld with my iPhone. Stitched two photos together using Panorama Stitcher. #astronomy

View of the northern night sky above a suburban development, showing a curtain of greenish northern lights with some brighter pillars. On the right side is a pinkish pillar.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

The Triangulum Galaxy. This is the result of almost 24 hours of imaging over 5 nights. This galaxy is about 2.7 million light years away. It is about 60,000 light years in diameter, a bit more than half the size of our Milky Way galaxy. #astronomy

A spiral galaxy fills the center quarter of the image, with several brighter spots in each arm of the galaxy. The galaxy is set against a field of stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

The Andromeda Galaxy. We had 6 consecutive nights of very clear skies, just beautiful weather, with the moon new to a thin crescent setting before imaging began. This is a mosaic of five individual images totaling about 25 hours.

A spiral galaxy fills the center of the image, a bright oval tilted from the upper left to the lower right. The center is a bright blob, surrounded by brownish rings circling the center of the galaxy. Many stars fill the background, with one bright bluish star at the center left of the image.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Hint of the northern lights visible low in the sky from the Twin Cities this evening.

Hint of purple and green northern lights low in the sky above several trees in the distance, with a few houses also in the distance. A few stars are visible in the sky above the northern lights.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

The Dumbbell Nebula. This is about 5 1/2 hours of imaging over three nights. Very clear all three nights. This is the result of a star that exploded about 10,000 years ago. It is about 1360 light years away and about 2 light years in diameter. #astronomy

A oval nebula with the longer dimension vertical is in the center of the image. It is mostly blue-green with reddish colors on the left and right and a bit at the top and mixed in tangles through the nebula. The nebula is set against a dense field of thousands of stars, with one brighter star to the upper left.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The Iris Nebula. This is from 12 1/2 hours of imaging over six nights. It takes a lot of time to really capture the dark nebula surrounding the brighter blue nebula lit up by the star in the center of the nebula. The Iris Nebula is 1300 light years away and about 6 light years across. #astronomy

Bright blue nebula in the center surrounded by darker brown nebula, all set against a field of stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

The Great Globular Cluster (Messier 13). This is about 5 hours of imaging over two nights with a nearly full moon. This globular cluster contains more than 300,000 stars. It is about 24,000 light years away and about 145 light years in diameter. #astronomy

A bright ball of thousands of stars make up this globular cluster in the center of the image. The cluster is set against a field of stars with one reddish star to the lower right of the cluster.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

The Croc's Eye Galaxy (Messier 94). This is an interesting and weird galaxy. It has two ring structures, the inner one is very bright, the outer one is much dimmer. It has some spiral structure, but not all of that is visible in visible light from earth. #astronomy

A galaxy appearing as a bright oval core, surrounded by a not quite as bright ring, with a much dimmer ring surrounding those. There is some spiral structure barely visible in the brighter ring and core.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

The Whirlpool Galaxy. This is about 6 hours and 40 minutes of imaging over three nights. The two galaxies are interacting as the smaller galaxy has pasted through the larger galaxy twice, causing the distortions in each galaxy. #astronomy

A large spiral galaxy with two distinct spiral arms fills the center of the image. A nearby smaller galaxy is connected to one of the larger galaxy's spiral arms. A cloud of white gas surrounds the smaller galaxy.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

The Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). This is from three nights of imaging totaling about 9 hours. The Pinwheel Galaxy is 21 million light years away and is about twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. The distorted spiral is caused by gravity of other galaxies in its local group. #astronomy

A spiral galaxy fills the center third of the image. Several bright arms spiral away from a very bright core. The spiral arms are distorted by the gravity of other nearby galaxies. The galaxy is set against a field of dimmer stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy. I've been trying to get this done for over a month, but lots of cloudy nights made it frustrating. I had about 8 hours of imaging on each of M81 and M82 and a few hours between them to get a good mosaic of the two galaxies together. #astronomy

Two galaxies set against a field of stars. On the upper right is Bode's Galaxy, a classic spiral galaxy with a bright core and several arms it a tight spiral away from the core. There is some lumpiness in those spiral arms. On the lower left is the Cigar Galaxy. It is seen on edge. It is less well-defined, a little fuzzy around the edges. There are some reddish filaments crossing the body of the galaxy.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Totality during the lunar eclipse last night. This is a single photo taken with my Dwarf 3 smart telescope. A 2 second exposure with 60 gain. I did some noise reduction and a bit of sharpening.

The full moon during totality during the lunar eclipse on March 13-14, 2025. The moon is colored deep red with a bit of lightness at the top. There are a few stars visible in the background.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

The Horsehead Nebula. The bright star at the top center is the left most star in Orion's belt. This is from 252 images of 120 seconds each taken over four nights over the past two weeks or so (too many clouds!) for a total of about 8 1/2 hours of imaging time. #astronomy

Reddish nebula fills the center of the image from the top to the bottom. In the center of the image is dark dust in the shape of the head of a horse (with the top of the head pointing to the right and the nose pointing up) covering part of the red nebula.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

The Orion Nebula from three nights of imaging totaling 8 hours. The Orion Nebula is the middle "star" in Orion's sword below the three stars that make up his belt. You can see it with the naked eye, but it's really nice in a small telescope. #astronomy

A bright nebula fills the center of the image, with bright white color at the top left and more reds to the lower right and dusty brown streaks running through it. There is a clump of white, red, and brown at the top left of the main nebula, and a smaller dimmer detached nebula above it that is more bluish in color.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Google Maps went ahead and renamed the Gulf of Mexico. I did submit feedback complaining about this. If you would like to submit your own feedback, click the three horizontal lines at the top left in Google Maps, choose Edit the Map, then Your opinions about Maps.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

The Jellyfish Nebula. This is from 17 hours of imaging over 5 nights. The Jellyfish Nebula is a remnant of a supernova from 35,000 years ago. It is about 5000 light years away and 70 light years in diameter. #astronomy

The right center of the image is filled with a bright read nebula in the shape of a jellyfish, extending from the center of the image diagonally towards the lower right. There is a fainter nebula filling most of the upper left quarter of the image, reaching towards and just touching the Jellyfish Nebula's "head" .

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Messier 52 (the Scorpion cluster). You may notice a bit of nebula on the lower right. That is the Bubble Nebula. So I did a mosaic with my Bubble Nebula image from September. #astronomy

A cluster of stars fills the center of the image, set against a more sparse background of stars. A circular bit of nebula is in the lower right corner.

A mosaic showing a cluster of stars on the left and a reddish and bluish nebula on the right. The center of the nebula is more bluish and has a circular shape.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

The Pleiades star cluster from over 13 hours of imaging over 4 nights. The Pleiades are visible to the naked eye in reasonably dark skies. Follow the belt of Orion to the upper right, just past Jupiter. The cluster is moving through a dust cloud and its stars are lighting up the dust. #astronomy

A cluster of bright stars filtered through clouds of bluish white dust in the center of the image, set against a background field of dimmer stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

A nice sun halo greeted me as I finished my run this morning.

The sun is in the center of the image with a halo of white surrounding it. The sun is low in the sky, with houses and trees visible.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The White Rose Cluster from last night. This is from about 2 1/2 hours of imaging. This cluster includes about 1000 stars and is 7600 light years away and about 50 light years in diameter. It was discovered by Caroline Hersch in 1783, which is why it is also called Caroline's Rose. #astronomy

A dense cluster of stars fills the center of the image, set against a field of stars in the background.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

This is a mosaic of the California Nebula. This is two nights of imaging, with about 5 hours of imaging each night. I've been hoping to do some more imaging for this mosaic. But it's been frustrating with the clouds lately. Some sunny days, but with clouds moving in by sundown. #astronomy

A red nebula extends across the image from the lower left to the upper right. The nebula is visibly tangled. The nebula is set against a field of stars, with one much bright star below the nebula just right of center.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

With the nearly full moon lighting up the sky, I imaged another open cluster this evening. This is the Sailboat Cluster. This is from about 2 1/2 hours of imaging. Some nice red and blue color to the stars in the cluster. There is also some blue nebula mixed in with the cluster. #astronomy

A cluster of stars in the center of the image, with a few reddish stars and other bluish stars making up the cluster. There is some bluish nebula to the left of the cluster of stars, and some very faint bluish nebula mixed in with some of the stars. To the left of the cluster and nebula is a faint black thin cloud of dust, barely darker than the background. All of this is set against a background of stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Full moon through thin clouds this evening. #photography #moon

The full moon in the center of the image, dimmed a little by thin clouds.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

This is the Dragonfly cluster. This is from 2 hours of imaging this evening. The cluster is about 7,400 light years away. It includes about 60 stars. It is estimated to be 21 million years old.

Cluster of stars set against a background of many other stars. The cluster includes a pair of bright stars at the top with dozens of bluish stars below and a reddish star to the right.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

The Ghost of Cassiopeia (IC 63 and IC 59). These are faint emission nebulae near the very bright blue giant star Navi (Gamma Cassiopeia). The nebulae are about 600 light years away and just a few light years away from Navi.

A ghostly nebula in the center of the image, with a brighter V shaped part at the bottom center and a slightly fainter arc of nebula above it. Nearby is a very bright star. All of this is set against a background of many dimmer stars and a few brighter stars.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Mosaic of the Heart and Soul Nebulas. I've been working on this for several weeks. Nine different imaging sessions with a total of almost 33 hours.

Two reddish nebulas against a background of thousands of stars. One nebula fills the top right quarter of the image is shaped like a drawing of a heart with filament of nebula extending to the upper center. The other nebula fills the bottom left quarter of the image and is shaped more like an elongated blob.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 29/12/2023

I have a new smart telescope that can find objects and do live stacking of 15 second exposures while I sit inside and watch on my phone. This is the Orion Nebula from tonight, a total of 75 minutes of exposures with a little bit of added contrast and saturation and using Topaz to remove some noise.

Photo of the Orion Nebula, bright red, brown, and white gases in a field of stars of varying brightness.

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Daniel Ethier @dethier1958.bsky.social · 02/12/2023

The northern lights were just visible low on the northern horizon from Woodbury MN with a 4 second exposure.

Green curtains of northern lights just above the horizon above homes with Christmas lights.

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